Peres is front-runner in Israeli presidential vote

JERUSALEM, July 27 (Reuters) -- Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres could compound Prime Minister Ehud Barak's woes if, as expected, he wins election as Israel's eighth president on Monday.

The job is largely ceremonial, but political analysts predict Peres will be unable to keep his nose out of Barak's business when it comes to the matter closest to his heart -- Middle East peace.

A former Labor Party prime minister, Peres hopes to shatter his image as a perpetual loser at the ballot box in the race against Moshe Katzav, an unknown on the world stage despite his 23 years as a Likud party lawmaker and minister.

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Although Peres is the clear favorite, there is some uncertainty about the outcome. The ballot among parliament's 120 members is secret and some legislators are giving no indication how they will vote.

Peres's fate may be decided ultimately by the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas party, the largest parliamentary grouping after Labor and Likud.

The party, so far declining to say which way it will go, could back Katzav who, like Shas supporters, is a Sephardic Jew with origins in the Arab world and more observant of Jewish law than Peres is.

A running battle with Peres, 76, is not what Barak, 58, needs. With his government in shambles and this month's Camp David summit having ended without a deal, Barak is trying to chart a course for both political survival and peace with the Palestinians.

Stung by public criticism over a money scandal, Ezer Weizman, 76, resigned as president on July 10 with three years left of his second five year-term.

He admitted accepting cash gifts from a French millionaire before his election as president in 1993. Although Weizman was not charged, the controversy marred the straight-talking image of the former pilot and peacemaker.

Barak and Peres may not be all that far apart on the goals of Middle East peacemaking, but Israeli media have long alluded to a personality conflict between the two men and they could spar over which are the best negotiating tactics.

Since taking office a year ago, Barak has tried to marginalize Peres, making him regional cooperation minister while giving him almost no role in Middle East peacemaking.

Peres is the only Labor Party leader to lose an Israeli election ever, let alone five times. Barak, his successor as party leader, is Israel's most decorated soldier.

A co-architect of negotiations with the Palestinians that began in Oslo in 1993 and the head of a Middle East peace center that bears his name, Peres could turn the presidency into a soapbox for his peace agenda.

When Peres emerged as a candidate, analyst Chemi Shalev of the popular newspaper Maariv told Reuters: "They aren't known to get along.

"Around Barak there are people who are concerned that Peres may be too independent in the peace process and that could create friction," Shalev said.

Although Peres is a diplomat whose skills make him a welcome international visitor, his image as a dreamer and a schemer has marred a political career spanning half a century.

Opinion polls surprisingly show that Peres -- once rated the most hated man in Israel amid failed efforts to win elections, weld coalitions and garner support for secret peace plans -- would be a popular choice.

"I think people on the right feel they mistreated him perhaps and that in retrospect he was a great prime minister," Shalev said.

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